I flew (a rented Skylane) into MHV yesterday and flew out this afternoon
after all the excitement. It was painless getting the "Prior Permission", I
just called the airport operations number (on their web page) and asked.
Only strange thing was Bakerfield Approach told me that IFR flights were
prohibited into MHV - this made no sense to me, but weather was CAVU so I
canceled and just continued VFR. On my initial contact with Mojave Tower, I
gave them my Prior Permission number (PPR) and landed without a problem.
There was a TFR around the airport active from 6am to 9am this morning while
the actual launch was going on. However, several planes came in (with their
own PPR numbers) just before it became active.

What a day ! There was a palpable sense of history being made. Screw the
nit-pickers that argue this has all been done before. Its not what was
done - it was the way it was done. Scaled Composites is 125 guys working in
a hanger in the middle of nowhere and today they put a man in space and they
made it look easy. Way to Go!

-Brenor

"Tony Cox" wrote in message
ink.net...
"Casey Wilson" wrote in message
...
Contrary to statements made by several media outlets, Burt Rutan,
at
the post flight press conference, made it clear that the June 21, 2004,
flight of SpaceShipOne was NOT for the Ansari XPrize. Rutan said, "We
had
planned that the next flight would be the first flight for the XPrize."

I wonder if they'll close the KMHV for that flight too. Optimistically,
I thought I'd fly in before the protective NOTAM went into effect,
but the airport itself has been "Prior permission required" for the
last few days. Oh well. Perhaps without all the fuss next time it
might make a nice day out.